Dreaded low space message

[parfu]

I am having the same problem as CannibalAngel and have taken all the mentioned steps to try and fix it. I have not tried clearing my cache however because when I go into the "Manage Applications" section and select any app, it says the cache is at 0.0B and the "clear cache" button is darkened so I cannot select it. Is there another way of clearing a cache?

CannibalAngel - have you found a solution yet?

The main cache to clear seems to be for your internet browser. I use Dolphin - you should see a 'manage space' button for your browser in the manage apps section. click on that and you shoud see the option to clear cache. I also chose to move my cache to the sd card.

I am still getting the low space message from time to time. I still can't tell if it's actually due to something or a system glitch. Either way it's annoying.

 

[CarSho56]

That’s a good idea, moving the cache to the SD card. I will do that as well.

So I did a factory reset which kind of sucks because I am STILL going through and putting all my settings back how I had them and I will have to download all my apps again and any data I had in those apps is lost. The low space message is obviously gone though.

I think what was happening to my phone was that the apps were taking over the miniscule 150 MB of internal storage. I guess I was assuming the SD card automatically boosts your storage, but apparently you have to move the apps to the card if you want them to take up less internal storage. Seems like there are only a few apps that allow this though?

Does anyone know if putting an application on your SD card affects the functionality of the app on your phone?

 

[SubMatrix]

I posted this on another thread:

The low space error comes from a special partition located at /data/data. This is separate from the normal partition that you can write to, and is the reason why you can get this low space message even when you check your phone storage and it says you still have a lot of space remaining.

If you are rooted, download Root Explorer (basically like Astro but with root privileges) and navigate to /data/data. Notice that the size of this partition is like ~115 MB. If the available space remaining in this partition drops below 15MB, you get the low space warning. I believe if it drops below 10MB, you get the out of space warning.

The problem is you cannot directly use Root Explorer to determine which app is writing huge amounts of data to /data/data. Thus, I use a program called aCCleaner, which can quickly tell you what the culprit app is. I believe you want to check what is in the "Data" field under each app. From here, you can then clear the data on this app directly I think.

 

[parfu]

I posted this on another thread:

The low space error comes from a special partition located at /data/data. This is separate from the normal partition that you can write to, and is the reason why you can get this low space message even when you check your phone storage and it says you still have a lot of space remaining.

If you are rooted, download Root Explorer (basically like Astro but with root privileges) and navigate to /data/data. Notice that the size of this partition is like ~115 MB. If the available space remaining in this partition drops below 15MB, you get the low space warning. I believe if it drops below 10MB, you get the out of space warning.

The problem is you cannot directly use Root Explorer to determine which app is writing huge amounts of data to /data/data. Thus, I use a program called aCCleaner, which can quickly tell you what the culprit app is. I believe you want to check what is in the "Data" field under each app. From here, you can then clear the data on this app directly I think.

What are my options if I am not rooted?

 

[parfu]

Read some related posts. Most suggest drastic changes that I'm not ready to do yet. I still think it's a system glitch so I just made a couple of tweeks:

1) I went into menu, settings, accounts & sync and opted out of Background data as well as changing manage accounts settings to turn off those I'm not as interested in (though I actually did it in reverse order so I think the opt out would have turned off all the accounts).

2) also went to menu, settings, applications, manage applications and moved my Dolphin Browser to my SD card. I guess I had only moved the Cache last time I was in there.

As usual, since I did 2 different changes I'm not sure which one made the message go away this time. I'll alert if it comes back.

 

[SubMatrix]

I posted this on another thread:

The low space error comes from a special partition located at /data/data. This is separate from the normal partition that you can write to, and is the reason why you can get this low space message even when you check your phone storage and it says you still have a lot of space remaining.

If you are rooted, download Root Explorer (basically like Astro but with root privileges) and navigate to /data/data. Notice that the size of this partition is like ~115 MB. If the available space remaining in this partition drops below 15MB, you get the low space warning. I believe if it drops below 10MB, you get the out of space warning.

The problem is you cannot directly use Root Explorer to determine which app is writing huge amounts of data to /data/data. Thus, I use a program called aCCleaner, which can quickly tell you what the culprit app is. I believe you want to check what is in the "Data" field under each app. From here, you can then clear the data on this app directly I think.

What are my options if I am not rooted?

Being rooted just allows you to see the amount of space in the /data/data partition. You can still use an app like aCCleaner to see which apps are using alot of data.

 

[shaun.neff]

I never got the low space warning. Just the same I use Android optimizer for my space needs. Although my phone is rooted

Sent from my ADR6300 using DroidForums

 

[parfu]

I call B/S on this msg crap

I give up.

I had uninstalled some apps that I wasn't using but which kept self-starting. I also installed a cache cleaner and moved several items to my SD card.

Msg was gone for a few days. I installed 2 new apps and msg came back. I uninstalled those apps and msg went away for most of the day. Then it came back - with a vengance: no updates allowed and texting blocked.

Went and deleted more apps and moved all available to SD card. Now I have the Low on Space message AND Not Enough Storage Space for SM (something - it's cut off on my screen but assume SMS) = says my phone's storage is almost full (versus low application space).

Internal Phone Storage Total = 6.60G Available = 6.41G
SD Card Total = 14.96G Available = 11.23G

This is ridiculous....

 

[parfu]

Reboot

Well, after moving all available apps to SD card, deleting others and then doing *228, option 2 (per another forum), my phone entered the boot-loop death spiral.

Only option was to restore phone. VZW dude was unaware of the low space issue. He did suggest I give HTC and/or Google a call if the msg comes back.

Thank goodness for AppBrain, Flickr, Ringdroid, Google/Gmail and the many other Apps that provide a smooth restore functionality.

If you're still getting the msg I suggest you make sure to back up all info before you end up having to reboot.

 

[lhanson0851]

I had the Low on Space message for weeks. My Dialer storage was over 62mb. I tried several of the things mentioned on the forums. What worked for me was to clear the data on Dialer. This was scary because I have over 500 contacts. I initially lost the contacts, but no issues with email or text messages. The contacts restored with the next synch for Google and Exchange. I completed this step over a month ago and the Low on Space message has not returned.

Lisa

 

[alexkach]

So. Who has any idea of what to do if your not rooted LG Vortex gives you low space message? Any extra URL would be very appreciated.

 

[alexkach]

I don't think so. It is just quality of the phone's software.

It is looking like SD card doesn't work at all but no notifications about it. SD card came with the phone from the dealer. Nobody touched it.

 

[UPuser]

It's alive!!

lhanson0851 - I had the same issue with an Incredible recently. I tried several things, copying all data and apps to the sd card... no go. All phone storage indicators showed plenty of storage space on all devices (phone, sd card, etc.).

I went into the application manager, and cleared the data (not the cache) for Facebook (36MB) and Dialer Storage (58MB). I was a little nervous about clearing the Dialer Storage. I thought it was going to be the Dialer history (dialed/received/missed calls)... not quite. Turns out it deleted ALL text messages! My contacts and call history stayed intact.

So far, so good... :icon_ banana:

 

[TheGlatMachine]

I did what UPuser did, except I cleared data on Gmail. That fixed my problem!

 

[rtobe]

I had the Low on Space message for weeks. My Dialer storage was over 62mb. I tried several of the things mentioned on the forums. What worked for me was to clear the data on Dialer. This was scary because I have over 500 contacts. I initially lost the contacts, but no issues with email or text messages. The contacts restored with the next synch for Google and Exchange. I completed this step over a month ago and the Low on Space message has not returned.

Lisa

Thank you. I had same issue and was able to delete selected text messages which solved the problem.